NOTES
The gender of this child may not be obvious at first glance, but the white tunic and amulet around his neck were commonly worn by elite male children. The necklace, called a "lamella," was a container for a small, rectangular sheet of gold incised with a magical spell to protect the wearer.
Images of children were not as common as those of adults in ancient Mediterranean art. This began to shift during the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE), when there was a marked increase in portraits of children, particularly boys. This funerary portrait is in good company with the marble sculpture of a boy’s head nearby, which was also likely a funerary portrait.
